Post navigation

Dear Atheists

So do you, obviously, but that’s not the issue I want to address here. You haven’t committed to following Jesus and living his way, so when you behave like jerks, you are not letting him down.

We are the people who have committed to living his way and we are supposed to represent him, to be his ambassadors. Which is why I’m especially sorry when I see some of our jerk-like behaviour, because we’re damaging his reputation and we’re making it a lot less likely that you will ever be interested in getting to know him. If this is how his followers behave, you’ll say, why would I want to have anything to do with this guy?

When you say nasty things to us, we sometimes forget about that cheek-turning stuff that our master taught, and instead we lash out, we hit back, we mock, we do all those things that humans tend to do when they feel they’re under attack, but we forget that the guy we’re following didn’t indulge in that kind of behaviour. The guy we worship is the one who forgave people even as they were banging nails into him. He is a tough act to follow, and we fail so often it’s pathetic…

or is it? the thing is, you see, the Christian faith isn’t about us saying “look at us, aren’t we marvellous, come and join us” – it’s about us saying: look at Jesus, isn’t he amazing that he was willing to die to rescue pathetic humans such as us, he’s willing to forgive us even though we keep bungling it, he has even forgiven someone like me so of course there’s room for you too.

or, as Paul of Tarsus famously put it:
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”